Music has traditionally been distributed to consumers in stereo format. Whether recorded as an analog signal on audio cassette tape, or digitally encoded on a CD, music has typically been produced and distributed for presentation as 2-channel stereo sound. Such music, once distributed, does not facilitate flexible playback; and although music is distributed in other forms, for example the Dobly 5.1 surround sound format which encodes an audio recording in six distinct channels, music encoded in those other formats is equally inflexible. Example embodiments of the present invention address this inflexible production and distribution of music.